EU Hands Huge Government Cloud Contracts to BT

BT, the UK telecoms giant also known by the name of its subsidiary British Telecommunications, has landed two government cloud contracts with the European Union, together worth more than €24 million over four years.

BT will provide public and private cloud services to more than 50 European government institutions, agencies, and bodies, from the European Parliament and European Council to the European Defense Agency. The company will serve as the European government’s private cloud provider and will be one of the handful of companies allowed to compete for public cloud business.

This is not the first time BT has won government business in Europe. In 2015, for example, it secured a €15.2 million voice services deal with the European Commission, and a €55.7 million contract to provide internet access to all major institutions, agencies, and bodies in all EU member states.

The government cloud will be hosted in numerous data centers around the EU. The company has a mixed data center strategy, using data center service providers in some cases and owning and operating its own data centers in others, Jason Cook, CTO for BT Americas, told Data Center Knowledge in an interview earlier.

Although it offers its own public cloud infrastructure services, BT’s business strategy in that space is to be an aggregator, giving customers access to a variety of cloud and data center providers, including itself. Through this “Cloud of Clouds,” BT customers can access Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Salesforce, and Cisco’s cloud services, among others, or colocation providers Equinix and Interxion.

BT will be one of five providers that will compete for EU government’s public cloud business.

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